Unbelievably yet another year has gone by which means that I have managed to complete three years of blogging at Don’t Forget the Roundabouts writing articles at about ten-day intervals. This post will be my 105th since I started blogging on January 1st 2013. I have written over 15 000 words about aphids and another 31 000 words on other entomologically related subjects ; so at least one book if I can get around to linking the various posts into a coherent form 🙂 My views on the usefulness of blogging at a personal level and in terms of science communication remain as positive as ever and I fully intend to continue blogging for the foreseeable future. At this time last year last year I summarised my facts and figures in terms of views and international reach. This year I have decided to ‘borrow’ an idea from three of the blogs I follow, Scientist Sees Squirrel, Small Pond Science and The Lab and Field and speculate about some of the search terms that direct people to my site.

So first the bare facts, I reached 150 countries (145 last year) and received 29 385 views

Top nine countries for views during 2015

(24 616 last year) and as yet the figures seem to suggest that I will continue to gain more views during 2016, but it is only a simple regression and a pessimist might see a plateau appearing 🙂

My top post, as last year, was Not All Aphids are Vegans closely followed by A Winter’s Tale – Aphid Overwintering both with over a thousand views. So how do people find me, which search terms do they use? As you might expect the most frequently used search terms are those that ask do aphids bite people (humans)? In fact most of the search terms that plonk people down on my blog are aphid related. Jiminy Cricket also turns up a lot; this is because of one of my very early posts in which I pointed out that Jiminy Cricket should really be Gregory Grasshopper. On the other hand, some people do actually search for me and my site specifically. There are, however, some weird and wonderful search terms that send people my way, a few of which are worth commenting on.

Do police dogs follow the scent of fear? An easy one to start with, this directed the searcher to my post on aphid alarm pheromone, which will of course, not have answered her/his question.

These two are obviously linked to the name of my blog.

Who are the roundabouts in Pinocchio? I didn’t know that roundabouts featured in Pinocchio but Jiminy Cricket certainly does 🙂 On reflection this may have been a misspelling of roustabouts, in reference to the two villains who kidnapped Pinocchio.

Why were roundabouts so big back in the day? An intriguing question to which I have no answer.

This one takes the prize for the most specific set of terms entered.

What is the name of the male group of entomologists that is the oldest group in the world and has recently invited Dr Helen Roy to become a member? – the answer is of course The Entomological Club.

I was extremely flattered that Google directed this inquirer to my blog 🙂

Where is the latest global discourse in entomology?

Obviously all my trips to Paris and France have upped my international profile,

article sur aphis nerii et ses parasitoides

but these are pretty obscure to say the least!

her wellies got sloppy pictures, but probably (s)he meant soppy? so here you are

it’s raining get coat and umbrella study module to get a first in exam results

what is a milligram? I have no idea how that ended up on my site and as for this one?

joni printed 50 pages, then he took a pair of scissors and carefully cut 300 tag and signed all of them

And finally a couple of X-rated ones:

why girls bum sap changes having sex? I’m guessing that (s)he meant shape – being directed to an article about aphids ingesting phloem sap must have been a bit deflating!

video sex girls avenae this one must have really been disappointed but if (s)he comes this way again (s)he might like to watch this video produced by the Silwood Revue which is well worth a view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sBzNsaSzdM

I could go on, but enough is enough, and the rest are mainly aphid related.

I love these strange-search-terms posts… and am both stumped and weirdly fascinated by the sloppy welly pictures! Also quite envious of the Surgeres roundabout. Roundabouts are still very unusual here, which means drivers are, um, less than skilled at navigating them (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fredericton-roundabout-checker-taxi-1.3250169). Putting interesting stuff in the middle for people to look at might tip us over the edge of chaos!

Comments may be falling off generally because people are reading more and short of time. If you want lots of comments (though not pleasant or pertinent ones) you need only post certain political positions to have a swarm of hornets descend and tell you in no uncertain terms that you’re stupid, ugly, ignorant, lazy, evil, etc. Fewer comments can mean that what you’ve written sends people away thinking…not a bad thing to do.

But it is fun to get feedback, so I am happy to say that on this first visit to your blog, I enjoyed this post and read a couple more. (And now it’s time to get back to work on my own stuff.)

Welcome to the lounge, where entomologists and insect enthusiasts can relax, grab a cup and put on a nice music. Step out of your day job, and step into your zone, where you reconnect with your passion for insects and enrich yourself with more knowledge.